Dear little Simon,

You are ten months old today. Every single day you are less a little baby and more a big boy. I truly marvel at what you can do.

This month the big news is that you are crawling. You worked yourself up to it, moving just your arms and then dragging your legs behind (this looked like the Worm, a breakdancing move). You would also pause every so often and put your head down to look back at your legs (a yoga move, the Downward Dog)—we teased you, saying that you were making sure that they were still working.You had all the components, and you got where you needed to go, but it wasn’t really crawling. Then one evening, you put it all together, and you’ve been crawling every since. You’re getting pretty fast too. Truth be told you are still a little jerky in your movements, and you look a bit like a little windup toy. Believe me, it’s adorable.

To get you to practice crawling, Daddy and I started playing a game with you. It’s based on a game from Whose Line Is It, Anyway? a TV show we like to watch sometimes. We use a cardboard tube from a paper towel roll (no, it doesn’t take much to amuse you—or us, for that matter), and we toss it back and forth and pretend that the tube is something different each time (a drumstick, a light saber, a mustache). The idea is that you will want the tube and crawl to get it. Let’s just say that it’s a good thing you come easily to Mama because my sound effects are truly pathetic. Daddy’s, on the other hand, are perfect—interesting to you and they always make Mommy laugh. Like I said, we started the game to entice you to practice, but that’s becoming less and less of an issue—you love to crawl, anywhere, anytime (even in your sleep once in a while).

The other big development is that you are pulling yourself up to a standing position all by yourself. Again, you started slow and you still do take quite a few tumbles, but I’m duly impressed at how quickly you are improving even in just a few days. And you look like you are so proud of yourself when you find you can stand up on something new; that kills me. You love to stand up in your crib; we’ve already lowered the mattress once, but it looks like we’ll have to lower it another notch. You have mastered pulling yourself up on your music table, you’re making progress with the couches, but so far the most impressive has been that you pulled yourself up on a brick wall with just your fingertips. Kid, you might have a future in rock climbing (oh dear!).

You don’t have any concept of how tall you are, so when you try to pull yourself up under chairs or the desk in the kitchen, you bonk your head and just can’t figure out why you can’t stand up straight. You can be pretty stubborn too, and when I try to pull you out from one of these situations you hold on tight. It’s pretty hard to take you seriously when you get yourself stuck and then fight against being rescued.

You love music. You love to hear it, love to make it. You really enjoy banging on the piano, and you tend to like the high notes. You and your daddy spend a little time each evening practicing. It’s some of the most beautiful noise I’ve ever heard.

Although you don’t always perform on cue, you like to clap when you’re excited (or when we try to conjure up excitement just by saying “Yay!"), and you sometimes throw your arms up too (the best is when they’re a little askew, like you’re making a “c,” one arm curled over your head, the other stuck out to the side). You also know how to play Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake Baker’s Man. Your favorite part is “mark it with an S!” You sometimes seem a little bored before we get to that part.

It seems like you’ve been imitating sounds more. We can usually get you to do a fake cough, and you’ll match a pitch saying “buh buh buh.” I could do that all day long; it’s really delightful.

And this weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving—your first one, of course. You did great with all the traveling (to the Kliewer Thanksgiving in Omaha and the Carlson Christmas in Laurel) and jostling and oohing. True to form, you passed on most of the big people food that we offered you, but you did allow us to give you more than one bite of pumpkin roll. Good boy.

You are a happy little guy, and you bring so much joy into our lives. Most days I think I’ll burst, and one of these days I probably will.

Mama loves you so very much, little man.

More photos of this month here.